IS it possible to be caught between today and tomorrow? Yes, say 56,000 workers from 50 countries in PwC's 2024 Global Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey.
Change is, like death and taxes, a certainty, corporate leaders tell employees. Death and taxes, the workers of the world understand. There are just too many of them around us. But change? Good chief executive officers will not only explain the need for it, but will lead them through it. The fact that so many workers are caught between the present and the future is a telling assessment of C-suite (top) leadership.
In one reading, the latest PwC survey — there have been five since 2019 — is a damning indictment of corporate leadership. The "yes, sir" generation of "boomers", lemming-like followed where the leaders went. Not so the Gen Z, millennials and Gen X, who make up the labour force today. They question everything, including the need for change. More than half of those surveyed feel that there is too much change at work happening at once. And 44 per cent don't understand why things need to change at all.
But all is not bleak. Most of those surveyed say they are ready to adapt to new ways of working. Many, too, see the potential in using generative artificial intelligence (AI) to increase their efficiency. More than half have an optimistic view of their companies' future based on recent changes they have experienced at the workplace. Mixed signals? What other signals can you send when you are trapped between today and tomorrow? There is certainly a compelling business case for change.
Consider Petronas, Malaysia's only Fortune 500 company. At 50 — it was registered as a company on Aug 17, 1974 — Petronas' success isn't just about years, but about the experience of change, leadership and employees who have always been ready, able and willing to embrace change. You just don't get to move from "duck ponds" to global deep waters without both.
Unsurprisingly, PwC advises corporate CEOs to double down on making the case for change to employees. The advice is based on a corporate truism: employees help drive change and unless they are made to understand the need for change, transformation plans are unlikely to work.
The survey results, too, point that way. Of the 56,000 surveyed, 44 per cent don't see why things need to change. And about the same number of respondents feel that changes being introduced at the workplace threaten job security. Such fears and uncertainty need to be allayed if business leaders are to retain the brightest talent.
Change fatigue isn't just an invention of management consultants, but a corporate disease that needs to be cured. Employers want to stay relevant by investing in technology.
Employees, too, want to stay relevant in the AI-driven business world. Successful employers will seize the opportunity by upskilling the workforce. Productivity doesn't just happen. It is driven by a skilled workforce. Employers who ignore this skill imperative will likely lose a bulk of the workforce in the next 12 months as they switch to employers who place a premium on upskilling employees, a red flag the survey waves at C-suite leaders. They will ignore the warning at their own peril.